China blocks move at UN to list Masood Azhar as global terrorist; India says it is 'disappointed with outcome'

In yet another setback to India’s bid to designate Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, China on Wednesday put a technical hold on a proposal in the UN Security Council to ban him following the Pulwama terror attack. The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, the UK and the US on 27 February, days after a suicide bomber of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed at least 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan. The Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee members had 10 working days to raise any objections to the proposal. The no-objection period deadline was scheduled to end at 3 pm local time (New York) Wednesday, (12.30 am IST Thursday). [caption id=“attachment_6174921” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of JeM chief Masood Azhar. AFP[/caption] The proposal was the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a global terrorist. The committee makes its decisions by consensus of its members. All eyes were on China, which has in the past blocked India’s bids to get Azhar listed as a UN-designated global terrorist thrice. India expressed disappointment over the development on Wednesday. In a press release, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, “We are disappointed by this outcome. This has prevented action by the international community to designate the leader of JeM… We are grateful for the efforts of the member states who moved the designation proposal and the unprecedented number of all other Security Council members as well as non-members who joined as co-sponsors.” The MEA further said that it will “continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that terrorist leaders who are involved in heinous attacks on our citizens are brought to justice.” With inputs from PTI